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Prodi government gets confidence vote

ROME, ITALY — Premier Romano Prodi kept his fractious center-left coalition together to win a confidence vote Wednesday in the Senate, ensuring the temporary survival of his 9-month-old government.

"I am very satisfied," Prodi said after the 162-157 vote in the upper house of Parliament.

Prodi resigned last week after the Senate failed to endorse foreign policy guidelines, including a commitment to keep 1,800 troops in Afghanistan. The defeat was blamed on defections from far leftists and opposition by some honorary senators appointed for life. The president asked Prodi to stay on and put his Cabinet to new confidence votes in Parliament.